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Our kind and valued readers continue to encourage us with words
of praise and appreciation. Here are a few samples: "Enclosed
is a check to renew this subscription. ... We have decided to
continue to order two copies each month because there is always
someone with whom to share our extra copy" (JR). "I
heard a plea for your publication on a tape from one of the workshops.
It is good to know there are some still committed to the truth
and will stand for what is right" (KB). "I had no intention
of letting my subscription run out" (HA). "Please do
not send me the Firm Foundation any longer. I do not want
to receive it" (AJ). (Ooops! Sorry about that. Maybe when
you have been without it a few months you will re-up.) "We
appreciate the fine job you do in the selection and presentation
of the material in this wonderful paper" (RMc). "Send
the paper to the person listed on this card. Enclosed is a check
in the amount of $28.00 for a two-year subscription" (BS).
"Subscription for the Firm Foundation expired. Please
begin again. Enclosed is payment of a 2 year subscription"
(LL). "My husband and I really enjoy the Firm Foundation.
We have been borrowing a copy for sometime. We are requesting
a copy to be sent to our address" (PMc). "I commend
you for your faithfulness in giving the brotherhood the truth
about what is happening" (PW). "You are doing a great
job with the Firm Foundation. We need strong voices to
call us back to the Old Paths" (GMc). "I am renewing.
... I never want to miss a copy. I like the Firm Foundation
because it teaches Bible truth" (KM).
- Thanks a whole bunch. We need all the encouragement we can
get. Someone has said that compliments are "the applause
that refreshes."
- One dear brother wrote: "I have decided to let my subscription
expire because of all the political commentary in your journal.
I agree that homosexuality is sinful, but only one of many. You
mean you couldn't find anything in the two previous administrations
that was a sin?" (RH). We hope you will reverse your decision.
The Firm Foundation is nonpolitical. Homosexuality is a
moral and not a political question. When political parties champion
immoral practices, we do not become political by opposing the
sin. If I point out that the Bible condemns homosexuality and
that it is wrong to do anything that promotes this foul and decadent
practice, and you regard that as an affront to your political
party, what is that saying about your political party? Think it
over and change your mind.
- Nothing will divide the church more than ignorance, and nothing
can bring us together better than knowledge. A lack of knowledge
destroys.
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- "Things Most Surely Believed" will be the theme
for "Four Great Days of Biblical Emphasis" which will
be conducted by the Hobbs Street Church of Christ in Athens, Alabama,
on September 19-22, 1993.
- Gary Colley and Joseph D. Meador have accepted responsibilities
at the Southwest Church of Christ in Austin, Texas. Brother Colley
will be the preacher for the church, and brother Meador will be
the academic director of the Southwest School of Bible Studies.
The school was established in 1978. For more information contact
the Southwest School of Bible Studies, 8900 Manchaca Road, Austin,
Texas 78748, or call (512) 282-2486.
- The Dindigul Bible Teachers Training Institute for Married
Men, Tamil Nadu, South India, has a large enrollment of qualified
men who are training to teach the Gospel. The cost of maintaining
a married student in the school is $50 per month. Single students,
both men and women, are also trained at a cost of S25 per month.
For more information contact Avondale Church of Christ, 4017 Memorial
Drive, Decatur, GA 30032, (404) 299-1475.
- The Fourth Annual Northwest Tennessee Bible Lectures will
be presented August 1-4. The speakers include Dub McClish, Willard
Collins, Garland Elkins, Kelbuy Smith, Paul Sain, James Boyd,
Gary Colley, Winfred Clark, and Wayne Coats. The program will
be conducted at 800 East Wood Street, Paris, Tennessee 38242,
(901) 642-2861.
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Thomas Eaves has written a study guide for Vacation Bible Schools.
The material is excellent for high school and adult classes. The
study guide would work well for any Bible class. The book deals
with use of recreational drugs, including tobacco, alcohol, and
marijuana; modest clothing; homosexuality; abortion. These are
the hot issues of our time and need to be thoughtfully studied.
Contact Thomas F. Eaves, Southeast Biblical Institute, P.O. Box
49101, Algood, TN 38501, (615) 537-9770.
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Bare-breasted teenage girls in overalls and bald, biker dykes
from California paraded down Connecticut Avenue during the recent
gay-and-lesbian-rights march in Washington. Newsweek magazine
reported it was "an unabashed display of lesbian clout"
(June 21, 1993). The magazine questioned: "Why now? As conservatives
are quick to note, the election of Bill Clinton contributed to
this open atmosphere. ... Homosexuals give him credit for being
the first president to acknowledge gays and lesbians, let alone
promote them." Roberta Achtenberg is an assistant secretary
of housing and urban development. She (it) is the first open homosexual
ever confirmed by the United States Senate. The National Organization
for Women recently appointed Patricia Ireland to head the organization.
She has a husband and a woman lover. Newsweek reported
that in Washington during the lesbian-sodomite march, women chanted,
"Two, four, six, eight, how do you know your grandma's straight?"
We wonder about that. They use the word straight in contradistinction
to what? Crooked? Bent? What are they saying about themselves
with such a chant as that?
Newsweek displayed a large number of photographs of the
lesbian-marchers-on-Washington. Every lesbian was down-right ugly.
Most of them appeared to be unhappy and agitated. They seemed
to be receiving "that recompense of their error which was
due." "Professing themselves to be wise, they became
fools."
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They Won't Stop
Cal Thomas in a Conservative Chronicle article (Feb. 10,
1993) wrote:
The pedophiles are knocking on the cultural door, asking for legitimacy.
The New York Times Book Review last Sunday published a
favorable review of a book that praises adult-child sexual relations.
Too far out? Not when you consider how far down the moral ladder
we have slipped in the past 30 years. Once the standard that measures
right and wrong has been removed, anything becomes possible.
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Good Question
Sen. Dan Coats of Indiana says his opposition to lifting the ban
on sodomites and lesbians in the military is based on "very
practical aspects. For example, the military does not allow men
and women to share quarters because of potential problems of a
sexual nature." Senator Coats asked "whether it would
be appropriate to separate homosexuals from heterosexuals if the
ban was lifted."
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Samuel Francis recently wrote:
Last week the Washington Times broke the story of how a
merry band calling itself the 'Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Military
Freedom Project' is hard at work planning what to whine about
once Clinton lifts the ban. The project's two-page agenda gives
the lie to the claim of the lavender lobby that all they want
is to be left alone to snuggle with each other in peace. What
they really seek is nothing less than the seizure of cultural
power through a charade of 'tolerance.'
The chief aims of the group are: grant veterans discharged because
of homosexual practice retirement and educational benefits and
separation pay; remove "homosexuality" from discharge
papers; compensation by the taxpayer. The project's agenda includes
"training programs" to remove prejudice, stigma and
discrimination with regard to sexual orientation. Training includes
"didactic and experimental" opportunities. Francis comments:
"Didactic means 'teaching,' which in this case really
means 'brainwashing.' It is not clear what 'experimental opportunities'
for learning about homosexuality involve, and maybe we don't want
to know."
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Prayer is dangerous. The U. S. Supreme Court ruled in Lee vs.
Weisman that a rabbi who delivered a very politically correct
"To-Whom-It-May-Concern" prayer at a Rhode Island junior
high school commencement had violated the constitutional rights
of a 15-year-old student in the audience. The court said, in effect,
that the girl must be legally protected against listening to views
she disagreed with. In another case, Zion, Illinois, was forced
to remove a cross featured in its city seal because the justices
ruled it a breach of the First Amendment. Teachers may hand out
condoms in school, but they are forbidden to display a copy of
the Ten Commandments on a bulletin board. Students may indulge
in almost any kind of activity in school, but they are forbidden
to pray (Source: Imprimis, April 1993).
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God Is Irrelevant
Ours is a live-for-the-moment society that thinks that if God
is not dead, he is irrelevant. In 1992, polls indicated that 65
percent of Americans believed the Bible to be true. In 1993, polls
indicate that only 32 percent do, while 50 percent say that they
actually fear fundamentalists. There has never been a case in
history in which society has been able to survive for long without
a moral code. There has never been a time when a moral code has
not been informed by religious truth (Source: Imprimis, April
1993).
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Ain't It a Shame?
University of Cincinnati's Provost David Hartlieb hired Dr. Edwin
J. Nichols, a sensitivity trainer from Washington. During his
faculty training session, Dr. Nichols tore into a young lady who
had been at the university all of three weeks and who had earned
a bachelor's from Wellesley and graduate degrees from Harvard
and New York University. The young lady was made to stand before
an audience, which included a hundred faculty members, while Nichols
proceeded to berate her, saying, "This is a member of the
privileged white elite." The young lady fell into tears in
response to Nichols' continuous taunts. Not a single person rose
to defend the lady. Afterwards, Provost Hartlieb praised Nichols
as perhaps the best sensitivity expert in America, saying his
presence demonstrated the university's commitment to racial sensitivity.
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Jesse Whitlock of Ardmore, Oklahoma, writes:
According to a poll in Christianity Today, the question
of the virgin birth of Jesus was considered. Seven thousand denominational
preachers responded to the question: Do you believe in Jesus'
virgin birth? Forty-four percent of the Episcopalians said 'No.'
Forty-nine percent of the Baptists said 'No.' Among the Methodists
60 percent said 'No.' And 49 percent of the Presbyterians said
'No.'
Whitlock wonders what would happen if the same question were asked
on the campus of ACU.
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Don Morris
April 1960 President Don Morris of ACC prepared an article entitled
"Losing Individualism?" Under the subtitle, "Aversion
to Controversy," he wrote:
A second mark of the soft mind is aversion to controversy. We
prefer to be soothed rather than challenged, pleased rather than
provoked, and gratified rather than stimulated. Some go to great
lengths to avoid argument and emotional tensions. This is simply
the reaction of soft-minded people who have lost, or soon will
lose, their personal convictions. Tranquilizers and alcohol represent
common forms of evasion.
This tendency to avoid conflicts and controversy is widespread.
Many people will frankly tell you, for example, 'We do not discuss
religion or politics in our home.' Yet Christianity itself was
born in controversy and has flourished during periods of tremendous
opposition. And our Republic was born in revolution and controversy
The enlightened mind does not shun a discussion of controversial
issues. Soft minds do.
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Feature Book: Shall We Restructure the church of Christ
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